Boo!

 

Last Halloween, I remember talking to Shaggy about this year's costumes.  We decided that it would be a great idea to have all of them be homemade.  We were full of ideas for cute costumes.  It would be so much fun . . . and so doable.

Then this year rolled around and the reality of life with so many kids forced us to reconsider.  We had a few "what were we thinking?" moments, and then decided to just pop open the halloween box and let the kids dive in and choose their own costumes.  Which was a good thing since the very thought of trying to make/supervise the creation of five costumes made me hyperventilate.

K used her costume from last year and decided to be an elven princess.  Lovely . . . and wonderfully easy.

S was super excited to wear a costume from a few years back.  Plus she raided my jewelry box and found a Zuni necklace that I've had for as long as I remember.



J found an old, thrift store fireman costume.  He was so excited to wear it, the only problem was that it was too small.  So when I saw this costume at Costco, I grabbed it.

This is the first year that he wasn't afraid to be a person for Halloween.  Every previous year, he's been some sort of animal or insect.  So I jumped on board and encouraged him.  We even pulled Shaggy's old helmet and boots out of the garage for a photo op.  Too bad we don't have a fire house that we can visit anytime to let him climb around on a fire engine.  Sigh!  I really miss the good old days in Chicago, sometimes.

R has been talking about being a fairy for months.  So I dusted off a gorgeous flower girl dress that K wore when my oldest brother got married.  It couldn't have been better, though I did have to hunt around for the right wings and crown.  Thanks again to Ebay, and my newest friend, Etsy, that part was easy.

I wasn't sure she'd want to wear the wings very much, but I could hardly get them off of her.  I'm thinking that this is one of my all-time favorite costumes.  Lucky B will get to wear it at some point in the future, I'm sure.



We didn't have any costumes that would fit baby B.  I guess I sold all my baby ones from previous years.  So I grabbed a used pumpkin costume from Ebay.

Turns out that I should have waited, because we realized belatedly that B should have been a piggy for Halloween.  Why?  Well, because she snorts.  A lot.  It would have been the perfect costume for her.

Oh, well.  She did make a cute pumpkin.  And as J pointed out, I do call her "punkin" all the time.

I've had people ask me why I put so much thought into my kids' costumes.  And I think it's simply because I like costumes.  And I like to watch how much fun the kids have when they're dressed up.  It becomes a role-playing extravaganza.

These two were running around the backyard, somehow managing to make fairies and firemen a natural part of their games.  Then they had to stop to catch a moth that they saw.  When J was done putting it into his bug jar, R said, "Good job, fireman, catching that moth!"

Now we all know that firemen rescue kittens from trees, but catching moths . . . well, that's something new.